Book Reviews featuring Romance of all Genres

American heiress Amelia Hathaway needs to start anew. Her husband cheated on her, and when everything she wanted in life slipped through her fingers, she fell apart. When she did, she took another heart wrenching hit as she lost the respect of her children. When her ex took her family from California to live in the small town of Magdalene in Maine, Amelia decided it was time to sort herself out. In order to do that and win her children back, she moves to Cliff Blue, an architectural masterpiece on the rocky coast of Magdalene. Her boxes aren’t even unpacked when she meets Mickey Donovan, a man who lives across the street, a man so beautiful Amelia takes one look at Mickey and knows she wants it all from him. The problem is, she finds out swiftly that he’s friendly, he’s kind, but he doesn’t want everything back. Amelia struggles to right past wrongs in her life at the same time find out who she wants to be. She also struggles with her attraction to the handsome firefighter who lives across the street. But Amelia will face a surprise when her friendly neighbor becomes not-so-friendly. As Amelia and Mickey go head to head, Amelia must focus on winning back the hearts of her children. She soon discovers she also must focus on winning the heart of a handsome firefighter who understands down to his soul the beautiful heiress who lives across the street is used to a life he cannot provide.

This tale of vulnerable, divorced, heiress Amelia Hathaway trying to fix her life and her family in Magdalene Maine sneaks up and steals your heart. Amy’s made some mistakes and when her husband of 16 years tells her he’s leaving her for another woman. When said ex marries the other woman the same week of their divorce Amelia doesn’t take it so well. Her children didn’t react well to her reaction.

Busy father, volunteer fireman, construction worker, boxer and divorced hottie on the block Mickey Donovan rescues Amelia on moving day when her ex is giving her a hard time. Crude, monosyllabic Neanderthal males are Ms. Ashley’s trademark, Lord love a duck, I can’t stop panting over them because they have so many of my hero identifiers. Needless to say, Mickey was a definite hit with this reader.

Amelia gaining strength as she regains the love and respect of herself and her children; Mickey getting past the hurt he suffered in his marriage as he loves again are both highlights of this read. So were Amelia and Mickey learning how to be in love with each other despite the differences and; all four children that contributed enough to be characters in their own right and not convenient paragraphs.

As common for the author, it’s all about the couple’s journey and this one was full of ups and downs and ‘real’ situations the reader can relate to. Unfortunately, this led to a bit of meandering and bloating, while fun and properly placed in the read it was unnecessary and added entire chapters that the read would have been fine without. Luckily the writing didn’t suffer because of it.

Another minus was the predictability of some scenes, especially with telegraphed outcomes. Another plus was the great sex scenes that require fans and iced beverages as they’re read. Several secondary characters introduced in The Will, (including Mickey), made cameo appearances. I also like the conceit of the house having such n impact on the story that it’s almost a character.

There is much to enjoy in this doorstop of a book and this reader is anxious for the next installment.